Date A Live: If all goes well, this could be a well polished turd. But it most likely won’t. Date A Live is blatantly derivative and doesn’t seem to have any intention to move away from a formula that’s very overused. This sounds like a vague comment you could make about pretty much everything airing in any given season, so consider what it means that I specifically point it out here. I hope all trees in the planet burn so light novels stop being a viable medium.Angry complains about lack of originality aside, this could be mindlessly entertaining if they get the action bits right. And looking at the trailers, they might have, although there are some reasons to be pessimistic about this; AIC PLUS+ might be the worst spinoff of the brand so quality consistency is doubtful and the preair has been delayed so there could be some scheduling issues already. The original novels don’t seem to be particularly popular so we shouldn’t expect a huge project, but hopefully it will have decent looking fights between cute girls all the way through.Not much to say about the staff because everyone knows that Motonaga sucks and Katanagatari was just a fluke. The character designer (who might be the animation director as well? Fuck official sites with incomplete staff lists) has done a good adapting Tsunako’s original art, so that’s one famous designer who gets a proper portrayal in anime form. Already better than Henneko!

Red Data Girl: The main girl wants to change, something she intends to achieve by repeating every 10 seconds that she wants to change. I dozed off during the boring trailer and still managed to hear her say that twice. She’s a shy miko being oppressed by her family’s traditions and possesses the rather unimpressing supernatural skill to make electronics explode. There also are two little boys who look like love candidates. They launched a manga adaptation to sell us on this premise but I took 3 hours to read 30 pages so I don’t think it worked very well. 12 episodes for 5 novels seems like a bit of a stretch but for all we know a faster pacing might make this more entertaining.Overall it doesn’t seem like a big production, they look more interested in their summer show with the one and only Okada. RDG’s director has been in the studio for a while but he doesn’t exactly have a great record, Bantorra being the only thing he’s done that people seem to like. The scriptwriter seems competent enough as long as he’s provided a good source (Genshiken) or works with talented people (Mizushima@Guu/Joshiraku), neither of which might apply here. As per P.A. Works tradition, it will have crappy animation and hideous CGi but anime fans will praise it anyway because it’s shiny. It’ll hurt more this time since it has original Kishida Mel designs just like Iroha, one of the few genuinely good looking shows they’ve made. By which I mean the only good one, CANAAN’s action aside.

Gundam SEED Destiny HD Remaster: Everyone’s most hated Gundam season, now with a blurry upscale and nonsensical retcons. The key pic makes me laugh because it has a very angry Shinn surrounded by fire and the caption “DESTINY IS COMING”.

KARNEVAL: Just so you see how arbitrary and dumb manga demographics are: this is a josei with more manservice and pretty boys than pretty much any shoujo series aimed at horny teens. We’re used to the this happening in stuff aimed at males but this is the living proof that no matter what kind of magazine it is, everyone wants to cover a wide range of potential readers. And to be fair it caters to them rather well, some of those dudes are damn hot.Other than that, however, I’m having trouble coming up with anything that it does well. The protagonist is beyond helpless and could trip to his death if he wasn’t surrounded by more capable people. He also looks like an anthropomorphized Kyubey which I guess isn’t a bad thing per se, but it creeps me out. There are secret organizations, mutants and all sorts of eccentric things, but it’s hardly engaging, probably because the author’s idea of storytelling seem to involve constant plot twists to keep the reader interested. And that doesn’t always work. If ever.The staff is appropriately mediocre, although the character designer/chief AD has done some nice work, especially on Toei shows. He’ll have to work hard to turn the very lackluster fights into something interesting, and to be honest there’s one neat action cut in the trailer that makes me almost hopeful, because I’m a naïve person who doesn’t know any better. That aside, I suppose it makes sense for Manglobe to pick up something aimed at girls since it’s been proved impossible for them to sell anything to males. I doubt the (sometimes undeserved) hate they get will carry over, so they have a chance at making something that makes at least a bit of money!

Yahari ore no seishin love come wa machigatteiru aka Oregairu: Every highschool LN ever, with the only distinct characteristic in the form of a depressive and socially awkward protagonist. It could work if his ramblings were more interesting, but it’s all pretty tame for a series about troubled students. And for the love of God, to everyone else, don’t assume the Brains Base brand is going to magically fix anything when it has a newbie director and a scriptwriter that has never worked with them before. The character designer is about the only interesting member of the staff, but as of this moment it’s not confirmed if he’ll also be the chief AD so it goes on the “random chance of having cool visuals now and then” list.

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199: I don’t have to speculate about this being good, mostly because I’ve already seen half the series and know for a fact it’s damn great. Remake of one of the most important works in the medium that excels at many things and only has the dodgy 3DCG as a blatant flaw. Don’t skip this one if you give a crap about anime in general.

Mushibugyou: Bug slaying in feudal Japan. The twist being that the bugs are as big as buildings. A good bet for those who enjoy overpowered characters constantly kicking ass and aren’t concerned by minor details like a plot. The choice of the studio is a bit weird since Seven Arc’s the most latenight oriented bunch there is, but it’s not a bad move by any stretch. They’re a guarantee of above average production values and capable of properly portraying the hectic yet very stylish battles. All animation lovers should keep an eye on it since Yoshinari is bound to appear and deliver some mind-boggling cuts. And by “some” I mean a couple because he’s an absolute genius but takes goddamn ages to finish one scene.

Photo Kano: Who’d have thought that Yokoyama’s directorial debut would be a dating sim adaptation. I know people mix up the terms sometimes but by dating sim I don’t mean a visual novel, so it’s a “game in which you seduce cute anime girls” rather than a “game where stuff happens and you might seduce cute anime girls”. So there’s nothing else. An empty shell of a protagonist you’re supposed to insert into and a bunch of cute highschoolers. And this project has been entrusted to Yokoyama Akitoshi, someone who’s worked countless times with Yuasa, a very talented individual who’s also been in charge of episodes in shows like Dennou Coil, TTGL and Ayakashi Ayashi. This is the kind of person that won’t be only directing but also planning the entire show. Sometimes cartoons confuse me so much I refuse to think anymore.On a side note, there’s some serious VA porn in this project, with Nakahara/Chiwa/Sawashiro/Mizuhashi/Kanemoto/Itou Kanae among the heroines. In fact, all of the main girls but one are voiced by famous professionals so I’m going to guess she’s the character no one likes.

Devil Survivor 2: What’s with Kishi in every SMT spinoff adaptation? He’s even in the Danganronpa adaptation and that has a completely different production committee so it looks like he’s become the Authority on RPG Anime. Anyway, he’s hyping this project a lot and the last time he did that was with Angel Beat so that can’t be a good thing. These complaints about Kishi no longer being the cool guy we once knew are going to get old because he’s getting a lot of work now, but I sure as hell won’t stop whining about it.

Majestic Prince: If this is as whacky and silly as the trailers then I’m willing to deal with Hirai’s character designs. There’s no way I can take seriously any of his shows anymore so it’s good that this looks dumb in all respects. The choice of director makes sense since Motonogata Keitaro has known Majestic Prince’s original creator ever since Getbackers but as I said before, he’s not especially talented. The project had 3 chief animation directors which is dumb and defeats the point, but on the bright side we have Orange in charge of the 3DCG mecha. If we’re not going to get 2D robots then they’re about the best alternative, their work in Akito is seriously impressive.

Yuyushiki: I probably shouldn’t be the one saying this as a HidaSketch and GA fan but please stop adapting Kirara 4koma, they’re not very good. What’s amusing is the studio choice since Kinema Citrus is, random shorts aside, all about the crazy action. And I somehow doubt those 3 cute girls will start punching the crap out of each other, as amusing as that would be. Mostly newbies on the staff, although there’s some promising people like Majiro as the main animator. Likely to be rather good looking… if you ignore how hideous the character designs are. Also, EXIT TUNES is composing the music for this. Not sure how good of a comedy this will be but I’m laughing already.

OreImo S2 (actually, the official title is 俺の妹。 so I suggest we refer to it as OreImo Full Stop): More OreImo just amuses me since at this point I can’t even get angry at Kurata working on terrible shows, because those outnumber by far the interesting ones he’s written for. I’m going to assume this show exists so I can tell people to stop looking at studio names, since the change from AIC to A-1 means nothing at all because it’s got exactly the same staff. See, it’s almost like cartoons are made by actual people and not by studio names.

Shingeki no Kyoujin: I want to be pessimistic because both Araki and WITS’ performance is doubtful but it’s hard not to get hyped. Sakuga fans were very sad because everyone’s dream was getting this adapted by Ando@BONES but the trailer is honestly good looking even if it’s got CGi up the wazoo. And Sawano score, which always help. Who’d have thought that the first good Muvluv Alternative anime would be the one without Muvluv Alternative in the title.

Hataraku Maou-sama!: The addition of oddities in generic highschool settings is one of the most common basis on light novel scenarios, but more often than not it is the MC’s little sister/girlfriend/dog that’s somehow special. In this case though, the weirdest element is the protagonist himself: a demon lord who, after being defeated by the holy hero, escaped to our world, which he plans on conquering. So he’s plans to climb the social ladder, starting as a part-time McDonalds employee. Doesn’t it already sound better than most series of its kind? Because it really is. Not exceptional, but closer to being amusing than infuriating. Sadly it’s got a rather average staff, lead by a guy who isn’t half bad but the entirety of the world wants to kill for directing Minami-ke S2. I don’t know how Ikariya Atsushi could do such a terrible job adapting the designs when his work on Fate/Zero’s was sublime, but I guess that’s the difference in scale between these two projects. They appear to look alright in motion, although the trailer only has footage from the first episode so it’s hardly a good indicative of the overall quality.

Kakumeiki Valvrave: I’m a bit torn on the staff; it’s hard to dislike Matsuo Kou when he pretty much single-handedly made Kurenai into a great series and has a rather good record, but as of late he hasn’t been very active and it’s been a while since he’s done anything notable. He’s had his fair share of experience with Gundam and if the short he did for one of its game is to go by, he’s got robot action down. On the writing side there’s Okouchi who’s been proved to be… less than impressive when Taniguchi isn’t around. I guess if you’re one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed Natsuyuki Rendezvous and decide to put all of Guilty Crown’s blame on Yoshino you can be more hopeful than I am, but I’m just not sold on it yet. What I am really hyped for is the OP/ED, though. TM Revolution with Nana? Angela for the first ending? I’m willing to put up with anything for this.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W: I still maintain that the title is going to be funnier than most jokes in the series. Nothing’s changed so expect a couple of funny episodes and slightly above average production values. Nyarlko might very well be Kana Asumi’s best role but that’s about the only memorable thing on the show, unless they manage to pull another catchy opening capable of going viral on the internet.

Hayate no Gotoku CUTIES: Hahaha why does this exist. It looks worse than the previous season which was worse than the previous season which was worse than the previous season. Just kill Hayate already.

Suisei no Gargantia: A seemingly interesting setting, robots, good production values, an excellent voice cast… The protagonist couldn’t look any less interesting, but I’d be really excited for this project in spite of that if Urobuchi wasn’t a factor. I can’t stand his work on anime. At all. Not even if he’s lead by a talented person I otherwise fancy, if Psycho-Pass is to go by. Murata’s a promising director so I hope he had a lot of input on the scenario and manages to contain Urobuchi to levels I find bearable. That said, if you genuinely enjoy the guy’s writing I see no reason not to get hyped for this. Random notes on the technical side of things: It’s been so long since Kamichu that the first thing I see when I see when I see Hanaharu’s art is PORN. Which is not a bad thing, really, especially since the designs are really good and have been perfectly adapted. Animation fans should be happy to know that Kameda is likely to be a regular animator; he worked in the opening and the first episodes, and he knows Murata and Tashiro Masako, the chief AD, from the Milos movie.

Henneko: While it’s as ambitious as a newborn bunny, this series mostly stays on the bearable side, which is fairly positive on the LN spectrum. The admittedly unengaging dramatic parts are few and far apart and the focus mostly stays on harmless comedy. With a less insufferable protagonist and a better cast in general, humor consisting on anything other than MC-kun liking boobs/being yelled at because he likes boobs and even less uninspired melodrama than it has, this could pass as almost decent!Unfortunately for this project, we just got this one thing by the name of Prism Nana, in which several talented artists used their take on Kantoku designs to produce shorts with excellent visuals. The comparison isn’t fair by any means, but the issue here is that everyone’s witnessed multiple successful adaptations of his work, so the cheap knockoffs from the Henneko anime couldn’t look any more offensive. It doesn’t help that the production values seem to be piss poor in general, with all the trailers having issues ranging from off-model designs to hilariously bad anatomy. The production committee is doing some serious advertising so such a poor technical performance is just nonsensical, but to keep it short I’ll simply say JC Staff sucks, which should be enough of an answer for most of you.

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride: This could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I swear the main girl defeated the most evil ninja by dragging her off to space and dying in the process, just to come back to life in the last scene for no reason. And that’s rather conclusive, I’d say. Can someone explain me why does this exist again? Kingetsu has been replaced as the scriptwriter but his presence in the first season didn’t save it from being rather terrible so there’s no real loss here. Hell, some of you might be surprised that this has a script to begin with. As long as it keeps up the VA porn and actual porn partly hidden by very stylish censorship, this will have accomplished its objectives so I see no need to ask for anything else. Also, I wish Katou Tatsuya composed the soundtrack for some I’m capable of enjoying just once, because he seems to work exclusively on things I can tolerate at most.

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 2000%: More idolm@nster. Fujoshi seem to agree that this is one of the least bad otomege adaptations and the performances are very amusing so go watch it if that’s your thing.

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: Short comedy skits featuring a young man and an alcoholic mermaid voiced by Tamura Yukari. Almost every other character also has a high profile VA but that’s not as remarkable as Yukarin voicing an energetic and crazy mermaid who sometimes fights bears. I know for a fact that some people sticked to OreShura because of her amazing performance so even if this is not exceptionally funny, it’s bound to be an improvement.Staff’s a mixed bag; directorial debut for Tatsuya Yoshihara and the first time Kikuko Sadakata has been Chief AD, but the latter has a lot of experience with Gainax people and has worked for some of the best directors in the industry. The script’s in good hands as well, being adapted by the main Milky Holmes scriptwriter. All in all, hardly a solid team but there are chances it can turn out really well.

Azazel-san S2: Yesssssss, Mizushima is back with more scatological jokes, cute demons and good animation. If you don’t think that’s a good combination, you were born the wrong way and I can’t do anything for you.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S: Now about Touma being sadistic, as the title could imply. Index represents the new generation of fantasy LNs; random highschooler thrown into an overly massive setting that requires an amount of exposition that young and inexperienced writers can’t handle. Being one of the worst offenders in that regard, I was rather surprised when I gave its spinoff manga a try and realized it was quite decent. Railgun is a barebones Index, which means that you get twice the action for less than half the talking, a much more sensible ratio. The plot happens to make more sense, probably because they keep it simple, so overall it does its job as an action series. Or it did, until it got animated. The first season of Index adapted three volumes onto 11 episodes then spent over one cours doing things I’ll never be able to comprehend. The unfathomable decision to make a 24 episodes adaptation when there wasn’t anywhere near enough material for it lead to an insane percentage of filler episodes, ranging from silly fanservice to serious action. I despised it myself, but I can at least see the appeal of the former; if for some unknown reason you’re fond of the characters, seeing them bond further must be really nice. The last arc, though, manages to retcon a ton of things while making no sense at all. It suffers from Index’s dull, pacing-breaking exposition and represents a tonal shift that left me dumbfounded. It’s not often that this happens, but I really have no idea why people like this show. It’s beyond me.But moving onto more interesting things, let’s take a look at the staff. And no, I don’t mean Tatsuyuki Nagai, with whom I have a troublesome relationship. The director is nothing but a meaningless detail when we have Nozomu Abe’s comeback. Accel World was the last show he carried show by himself and he did an excellent job at it, but I’m more partial to his cleaner style of animation so I’m dying to see his FX here. He’s improved a lot since the first season so the comparisons should be pretty interesting.

Arata Kangatari: A plot that feels straight out on a JRPG, featuring multiple worlds and a generic fantasy setting. A cast of non-characters. Uninspired action. Being adapted as a co-production between Satelight’s lesser staff and a Korean studio. This is making Magi look like a goddamn masterpiece already.

Crime Edge: When some horny Japanese person with twisted fetishes wants to share their depravation with the world, they tend to do it by the means of doujinshi, but Crime Edge’s author thought an all-ages manga would do the job. And to some degree he was right, since I now know that he has a hard-on for hair amongst many other things. As you’d imagine, however, a story written around what makes you hard isn’t necessarily engaging for the rest of the world. Doesn’t help that the pacing is a real mess and that the characters are, for the most part, not relatable at all. If you still want to give it a try, look forward to the anime adaptation brought to you by Yuji Yamaguchi, the genius mind that brought you DEEN’s F/SN adaptation(s), the Touka Gettan anime that aired backwards and other high profile cartoons like I, my, me, Strawberry Eggs or YamiBou. Have fun with that.

Aku no Hana: One of the most intentionally cringe-worthy series you’ll find. Its point is to be as disturbing as possible just because it can, and it does an excellent job at it. Everything, from the rural setting to the insane characters, is crafted with the intention of creeping the hell out of you, making it a highly polarizing story. If you think you can deal with that, do give it a try because it’s worth your time. Nagahama is an amazing director and he’ll be working with some of his old mates so the anime adaptation shouldn’t be any worse, although I’m worried about what the experimental visuals will end up being; this is a small project and they’ve announced that rotoscoping will be a huge factor yet they refuse to show any footage prior to the broadcasting, so...

I'm a huge fag for Leiji so Yamato is a must for me. And it should be for all of you buns too, if you don't like Leiji you might as well kill yourself. I'm serious. Other than that... Shingeki maybe? It's going to be great as long as they don't deviate too much from the manga. Although it's improved by miles now, the art in the first couple of volumes was horrible, so CG doesn't really bother me....I've noticed I've almost stopped watching anime the past year, the only thing I follow this season is gdgd Fairies, which is more bizarre, ad libbed sketch comedy than anime, really.

>>44810I apologize for the poor quality of this one, I got about halfway through labeling the harem shit ones when a crazy conspiracy theorist began to pester me on IRC about multiculturalism and gun control or something to that nature and my mind just sorta shut down and by the time I snapped out of it even the slice of life animes had "Boring Haremshit" stamped on them. CBA to do it again.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge went through its entire summary in its first episode (the girl doesn't even have long hair anymore), and judging from the episode preview the real story will start next episode. Hard to say anything about it yet.

>Red Data GirlThe main girl literally looks 5 years old and the main guy is angry all the time for no real reason. Oh yeah the first episode was boring as shit too. Dropped

>KarnevalIt wasn't nearly as gay as I had expected. The plot （笑） wasn't anything to write home about, but it wasn't absolutely unwatchable. Will not drop yet

>Yahari ore no seishun blah blah blahHey let's put this misogynistic unlikable MC in a genius beautiful perfect tsun tsun virgin princess girl who is also really annoying and have them fall in love over the course of the series. Dropped

>Photo KanoIf I buy a camera, girls will like me. Unfunny and boring, but hey the girls are at least cute. The anime probably wont have any service beyond pantyshots. Dropped

>Devil SurvivorThe only reason I was able to survive the first episode is because I was watching with other people and was able to laugh at it. Chuuni as all hell, but there is an attractive girl in a uniform and torpedo tits everywhere. Will continue to watch, hoping for unintentional humor

>Hataraku Maou-samaI had expectations going in to hate this and was very pleasantly surprised. The humor was spot on, it knew not to take itself seriously at all. There was a bit of hint of PLOT and DRAMA at the end of the first episode, which could be an issue. This show will only work if they ignore the obviously retarded plot and just stick to poking fun at the situation. Will gladly watch

>Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai TitsIt is legitimately good

>Dansai Burni xXxCRIMExXxEDGExXxThe plot is mind numbingly stupid, and the episode ends with ruining the only cute character. Dropped

>Aku no HanaI have not read the manga and know absolutely nothing about it. The anime did not entice me to learn anything about it. From what I understand the entire first episode covered 18 pages of manga, with hardly any dialogue. There is setting an atmosphere, and there is being shitty at pacing. Plot doesn't seem like anything special, but once again it is hard to tell as nothing has happened. Not that I will be watching any farther to find out - the rotoscoping is so atrocious that it is basically unwatchable anyway. Dropped

>>45222I always feel more excited about things when they're coming out every week. If I've got the whole series sitting around to be watched, it feels kind of menacing to have to commit to the whole thing, but if it's just one episode at a time, it's easier.

>>45225How nice to have so many different opinions! I, personally, prefer to have several episodes. Of course I like looking forward to shows, but often it just piles up in batches of 3-19 episodes per series. I hate that.

Then again, I still have five episodes left of something I haven't watched since last autumn...

First episode of Date A Live was pretty good. No surprise the Western anime fanbase hates it though.

>>45222I wish I could rewatch stuff but I always feel there's so much anime out there I haven't seen, and new stuff coming out all the time, that I can't bring myself to watch something I've already seen. So I end up watching stuff that turns out to no surprise to be garbage instead of watching shows I know I love and want to re-experience. It doesn't make sense but so often human behavior doesn't.

>>45236The first episode of Date A Live was terrible. The first half was generic haremshit and the second half looks like they're setting up for a bad Kaminomi clone. The BGM was the only good thing about it. I give it one more episode to go somewhere beyond "Shidou-sama, I'm very inexperienced but please teach me the ways of earth" "No, Shidou-san, fairies are evil. I must destroy the fairies. Also, I'm falling in love with you for no real reason" "Onii-chan, stop playing around and come lick my feet" "Oh Shidou-kun, you've become injured. Don't worry, your dear teacher will nurse you back to health".

>>45211The characters have noses, their eyes are small, some of them suffer from acne, the girls don't have busts and hips that are twice the size of their waists, everyone has brownish or black hair, the high schoolers look like they're in high school...it's like they were modeled after humans or something. Absolutely disgusting.

>>45241>>45243From what I heard (haven't watched it myself yet) it's apparently fully rotoscoped - traced from recorded video footage. If you do that for characters, of course you'd end up with ugly designs like that.

Death Billiards was really Madhouse, if that makes any sense. I liked it.

>>45241I wouldn't have a problem with realistic models if they had actual design work put into them instead of simply a rotoscoping real people. I was completely fine with the rotoscoping in Trapeze because the characters had a proper design besides the full rotoscoped look and it was part of a specific stylization and visual appeal. Here it somehow the idea feels lazy.

>>45240>"Shidou-sama, I'm very inexperienced but please teach me the ways of earth" "No, Shidou-san, fairies are evil. I must destroy the fairies. Also, I'm falling in love with you for no real reason" "Onii-chan, stop playing around and come lick my feet" "Oh Shidou-kun, you've become injured. Don't worry, your dear teacher will nurse you back to health".All of this sounds good to me. Why do you hate cute girls?

>>45246Maybe I'm just jaded and can't enjoy harems anymore because they're so terribly predictable.Fairy girl is the obvious choice for protagonist-kun. If he doesn't end up with her, it's almost certainly because they don't finish the story or go with harem end.Emo-genius-powersuit girl is at least a semi-viable alternative, but I'd give her ~1% chance of actually ending up with protagonist-kun. She'll try and kill fairy girl, only to be stopped by protagonist-kun, who will help her overcome her hatred of fairies and convince her that there's no meaning in a life of vengeance. Then she'll be reduced to a side character who clings onto protagonist-kun, who is too kind to outright reject her but doesn't really have any feelings for her. She'll probably be his knight and save him if something serious happens.The imouto isn't even a viable romantic partner for the protagonist. She'll spend the whole series coordinating these dates, realizing sometime towards the end that she really loves her brother, only to be rejected by him because he loves fairy girl.Researcher-teacher-nurse woman is likewise not a viable partner. She'll probably just be a side character that teases protagonist-kun from time to time.The yet to debut loli looks like she's probably another fairy, who will likely be the childish clingy type who sees protagonist-kun as an older brother figure. Once again, clearly not going to end up with him though. Of course she'll clash with the real imouto, but protagonist-kun will defend her and get his sister to accept her.Our other yet to be introduced fairy girl looks kind of menacing, so she'll probably show up and try to destroy Earth or something, but protagonist-kun will show her the error of her ways and convince her that earth is a beautiful place that is full of love. Although she'll hopelessly fall for him, she has zero chance of him taking her over his original fairy girl. That leaves us with blue ponytail girl, who may or may not have shown up; I don't particularly remember her, but she looks like she's a classmate or childhood friend or something. She'll probably get one episode or something and then be completely forgotten.Someone please tell me I'm mistaken.

Aku no Hana's animation budget seems way inadequate. The rotoscoping animation style looks way more budget intensive than the usual talking head fare, and everything ends up looking off model as a result.

ANN is giving AkuHana perfect scores across the board, despite their reviews including such comments as "Not everyone will like this show. From a personal standpoint, I didn't."It's quite amusing, really.

Photo Kano has boring characters and the fanservice isn't hard enough to save it. It's a shame because you'd think a lot better could be done with a premise like "a guy joins a club for taking lewd pictures"

Just watched Date A Live episode 1, and I don't really get all the hate for it. Was it overhyped or something? Well there are clearly superior anime this season, I thought it was pretty well-done for the kind of anime it is. It's full of cliches, but that was a given from the start; I'd say it was much better than you usually get from such cliche-fests.

Meanwhile, Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, which I really wanted to like, became genuinely terrible with ep2. Ep1 featured a ridiculous and cheesy, but somewhat mysterious and interesting story. Ep2 replaces the mysteriousness with a generic 'people kill people because of a magical game' story, but it's ridiculousness and cheesiness remains. While I love my over-the-top action, this one was just really badly executed, with dialogue not making much sense and often being used very awkwardly to convey background story ('hey, I misjudged the killing tools, they're not all that bad! By the way, did you know they were all used by infamous murderers and will slowly eat your soul?'). Go watch last season's Mondaiji if you want a good ridiculous action anime.

Karneval isn't getting enough love in this thread. I watched ep1 on a whim, expecting some kind of reverse harem fujoshi fanservice show from the character designs and the unappealing summary, but it's actually really good. In many ways, it reminds me of K from two seasons ago; bishounen involved in mysterious supernatural stuff (with a bit of action) while both the protagonist and the audience only slowly starts to understand what's going on in the series. Episode 2 was even better than episode 1, so I hope this series becomes as good as K.

And in case anyone's not watching Shingeki no Kyojin yet, go do so. Seriously.

>>45393Kitakubo confirmed they didn't use any 3D in the new Nyarlko ending, not even for that silly rotation, so it's all animation wankery for no reason. Too bad the show itself is still cheap as hell.

Aku no HanaIt's almost as much of a stylized live-action drama as it is an anime, but rotoscoping aside, it's got a good plot behind it. Protagonist steals a girl's gym clothes, but gets caught doing it by the class psychopath. She lets him off the hook on the condition that he form a contract with her, which seems to consist of hanging out with her after school and listening to her ramblings. She's clearly unstable though and prone to taking malicious actions out of no reason other than her hate for humanity. Protagonist-kun is turning into a nervous wreck and I expect him to suffer horribly by the time the series is over.

Date a Live>>45258 sums it up pretty well. The show is so terribly cliched they almost have to be doing it on purpose. Protagonist-kun is the embodiment of a dating sim lead, taken to the point of ridiculousness. He has to date a spirit girl to make her happy so she doesn't destroy the world. On the other hand, there's his childhood stalker who is also a mecha pilot bent on killing all spirits to get revenge for when they killed her parents. Oh no! The story doesn't look like it's going to be a winner, but at least the characters are cute and likeable, and if they can maintain the air of parody, it'll be a decent watch. It's an easy fall from a parody of a harem show into actually being a harem show though, so I wouldn't be putting any bets on the quality yet.

Shingeki no KyojinThis seems to be pretty popular, but episode 1 at least was kind of dumb and not all that interesting. In the 700-800's the earth has been overrun by giants that eat people for no apparent reason other than malice. Some of the survivors have managed to make a 50 meter wall of solid stone to keep them out of their city, where they've lived safely for 100 years. Apparently the inbreeding is getting to them, as they send out raiding parties to fight the giants, but despite being able to build these huge walls and make fancy grappling hooks and nice swords, no one seems to consider using ballistae, spears, crossbows, or any sort of ranged weapon, and they engage the giants in close-quarters combat. Needless to say, it hasn't been working out well. The plot itself is pretty much along the lines of DOOM: Repercussions of Evil. I don't remember protagonist-kun's real name, so we'll just call him John. John was a giant slayer for 14 years. When he was young he watched the raiding parties and he said to mom "I want to be in the raiding parties mommy" Mom said "No! You will BE KILL BY GIANTS. And then the lightning crackered and a giant giant who was 50 meters tall appeared next to the wall and he smashed the wall and the giants invaded the city and killed John's mom. John ran away with a tear in his eye and he swore "someday I will kill all giants!" While the premise of the series isn't bad, the execution wasn't impressive and the characters are just as cliched as in Date a Live, but I think they're trying to be serious in this one. Dropped for now, but if it gets good reviews after its finished I might go back and watch it.

Valverave the LiberatorThis show is almost amazing, but Sunrise is gonna Sunrise and make sure that no important character ever dies until the series is almost over, which kind of clashes with the otherwise brutal slaughter of the unimportant characters. In the future, the world is divided into three supercountries: the militant German Russian Federation, the at least somewhat less evil but still militant American Federation, and the peaceful Japanese Federation. The German Russians stage a surprise attack on the Japanese and try to steal their secret prototype robot: Valverave. However, they botch the job and the robot gets sent to the surface where a high school guy hops in to pilot it. The screen prompt tells the protagonist that he must resign as a human being to start the robot. He then spends about 5 minutes being attacked by the enemy before he actually starts it -- not because he's concerned about losing his humanity, but because he apparently is illiterate and has no idea what the screen reads despite being in both English and Japanese and having the standard YES/NO dialog on every computer prompt. The robot then turns on and he trashes the enemy mecha in a colorful whirl of lights. Protagonist later discovers that the robot has also turned him into a vampire doppleganger who can transfer his conciousness into other people by biting them on the neck. He takes over one of the top agents of the German Russians, using his body to shoot one of the other German Russians through the eyesocket (who somehow survives and is perfectly fine in a few hours after he puts a bandage over it. Is his brain super tiny or something?) Protagonist later transfers his conciousness back to his own body, and now the German Russian agent has been branded as a traitor by the rest of his country so he's probably going to end up teaming up with the protagonist and they'll use Valverave to bring FREEDOM to all of space. While it certainly isn't without flaws (too much teenage romance angst; why couldn't Shouko have actually died?), this series has more than enough good points to make up for them. It's hard to take anything too seriously with the "one-man army" waltzing through and killing 100s of soldiers and a giant robot that has an ultimate attack of stabbing itself through the stomach, but it's fun to watch.

>>45450>no one seems to consider using ballistae, spears, crossbows, or any sort of ranged weapon, and they engage the giants in close-quarters combat.Actually, you see them use (somewhat clunky but powerful) cannons at some point in episode 2, and even when they got a full hit in on a giant, it did NOTHING. The other ranged weapons being more mobile and less powerful, they've inevitably tried them before and concluded they don't do jack shit against the titans.

>>45450>>45453Cannons are the city's main line of defense, but they're pretty much immobile and hard to use if the giants enter the city. The pressurized sword-thingies cut through giant-flesh better and they use grappling hooks to whack 'em in the head, because that's the only way to kill a giant. I think they explained it in the manga, I still haven't started watching the anime.I do recall them using rifles at one point to kill a group of giants trapped in a room, though.

>>45453>>45454So basically, a cannonball, which weighs several pounds and fires at over 1000 fps is less effective than some spring-loaded grappling hooks that weigh maybe half a pound and fire at a fraction of the speed? Cannons, which revolutionized medieval warfare because they were blowing through *stone* walls, are ineffective against some fleshy humanoid monsters? Not to mention, they move so slowly, you could probably just wait for them to get to point-blank range and have a pretty much guaranteed hit, which would be way better than trying to stab them with a sword.

Also, since the giants (or at least the giant giants) can apparently teleport down from the sky, why don't they just teleport into the cities? Why even bother knocking the walls down at that point?

>>45455It's been a long time since I last read the manga (monthlies are hard to keep up with), but don't the giants move quite fast? Also, as mentioned earlier, giants don't necessarily die when shot.

>why don't they just teleport into the cities?There's actually a good reason for this, you'll just have to wait and see.>Why even bother knocking the walls downSo the smaller giants can enter the city.

>>45456At least in episode 1, they just lumber along zombie-style. I'm actually not even sure how they were even catching people. The guy who saved protagonist-kun and his sister certainly had no problem outpacing them.

>>45455Cannons are bad against the giants because lethal shot is needed to kill them. Only good choice would probably be shot to the head because shot in mid body wouldn't probably kill them because their build seems pretty strong. Aiming with cannon is hard seen on ep 2. That's why they train to attack their necks, not just randomly slice their bodies. Cannos are used for stationary defence, while grappling hooks are for offensive attacks.

What I don't understand, they haven't used pitfall traps against giants. Because they don't seem very intelligent, they would fall easily for them.

>>45468>What I don't understand, they haven't used pitfall traps against giants. Because they don't seem very intelligent, they would fall easily for them....and then easily climb out of them again? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't like to dig a hole 50m in depth and at least a meter wide for a single attack that has a good chance of not doing anything. These guys don't have machines yet, they'd have to do this manually for every single trap.

>>45469There would be spikes on the bottom which would pierce the victim. Of course after two or three giants have fallen in the trap and died, it would be easy just to walk over bodies, but if they had traps bit around everywhere, it would help against big attack.

Seems "pitfall trap" means just a hole. I don't know what is the correct term for trap which has a hole and spikes on the bottom?

>>45474>Richards began by letting people (including heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey) punch him in the gut. He then progressed to letting people jump on his belly, being struck by a two-by-four, being struck by a sledgehammer, and finally being shot by a 104-lb. (47 kg) cannonball from a spring-loaded 12 ft. (4 m) cannon. Richards limited his cannonball act to twice per day, as performing it more often was too painful.

>>45473Physics says the impact an object has on the body it's colliding with is dependent on the force of the object and the area of the object that's colliding with the body. Simply put, a sharp sword swung at the same speed will cause much more damage, even if the cannon ball is much heavier.

Of course, it's also dependent on some properties of the material being hit; walls will break if enough force inefficiently hits it, but other materials (such as most of the ones the human body is made of) are able to catch and spread impact to minimize damage. Compare dropping a knife on your hand to dropping a relatively heavy object on your hand; although the heavy object has a lot more force (because of a much greater weight), the knife is much sharper and causes more damage to your hand as the impact is concentrated on that tiny sharp edge. It's not unthinkable that giants would be able to survive cannon ball impacts.

>>45470Wikipedia says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trou_de_loup.Still, they're 2 meters deep and 1-2m wide; that's larger and much wider than its victims. And digging a pit 2 meters deep is nothing compared to digging a pit 50+ meters deep; the further you go underground, the harder it generally gets to dig. That's assuming the ground is fit for digging in the first place; depending on where they live, digging can be anything from a walk in the park to much more difficult than building high walls. Even if they manage to do it, it won't fill up with 2-3 giants at a time; one corpse ruins the trap enough to make any other victims escape with only minor injuries.

Speaking of injuries, these kinds of traps usually just injure the victim enough to be incapacitated, they have a very low kill rate. During the Vietnam war, these traps were used specifically for that purpose: deaths are just numbers, but seeing lots of wounded being carried off can have a devastating effect on morale.

>>45478I don't know if this was your intended effect or not, but you're making me really want to watch the second season of Nyaruko right now. I like it whenever a group of characters are refereed to as "the gang." It reminds me of Scooby Doo.

>>45477Certainly a sword swung at the speed of a cannonball would cause more damage, but you're never going to get a sword to move that fast.

A better analogy would be comparing stabbing a knife into your hand vs. firing a musket ball through your hand. Sure, the musket ball is just a blunt round piece of metal, but it's going so fast it has no problem piercing your flesh.

>>45483It depends on the environment in which the fighting takes place. They make a point of luring the giants to areas with tall buildings and/or trees so as to maximize their effectiveness.

And yes, the normal giants don't fare very well against cannons (the giant that broke the wall was something like twenty times larger than the largest giant they've ever seen). The problem is that the cannons must be used as stationary defense or in an ambush of some sort, because they're too large and unwieldy to be used as conventional weaponry against the giants.

>>45549>The way he made up a dialogue with an imaginary friends is almost kind of scary. You mean you don't engage in conversations with your imaginary friends/onee-san/favorite bishoujo? Which planet did you hail from?

>>45549I've heard that the fansub staffs move between the groups often so that the group name has little to do with the quality of the release, but it seems like Commie (and gg) pull off shit like this more often than the other groups.

L-Elf will NTR Shoko from MC and starts up his master plan and this is where S1 ends. In S2 we'll have MC manning up getting back together with Shoko and heading towards final battle against L-Elf where Shoko dies and we'll get a bittersweet end.

L-elf too? Or is he just going to be Haruto's body buddy? Maybe L-elf isn't qualified to be a pilot on his own so the last two go to the student council president and the blonde drill-haired girl? Or possibly the mechanic nerd? I'm not very confident on these.

>>45906"Hey let's put this misogynistic unlikable MC in a genius beautiful perfect tsun tsun virgin princess girl who is also really annoying and have them fall in love over the course of the series. Dropped"MISOGYNIST. MISOGYNIST. MISOGYNIST.

Anyway best trap of the season IMO. I'm behind with it, need to catch up.

>>45906>>45909So is it good or not?>MC in a genius beautiful perfect tsun tsun virgin princess girl who is also really annoying and have them fall in love over the course of the seriesIs why I didn't watch it.

I'm just getting started on the Spring season now. For some reason the charts I saw at the beginning of the year seemed to be devoid of anything decent, so I didn't bother until now.

During the fall I enjoyed Shinsekai Yori, Jojo, Psycho Pass, Robotics;Notes, Magi, Space Bros, and K. Anything as good as these that aired during the spring? I don't really care what the show's about, but it'd be cool if there was more substance to them that cute girls doing cute stuff.

>>46051At 200+ replies on various subjects condensed into one general thread, I can't blame him for not wanting to read everything. The descriptions don't say anything about quality; some shows sound good but turn out awful, and some shows sound bad but turn out great.

>>46048Shingeki no Kyojin is very good (and generally very well-received). Just go watch it, if after the first episode you aren't hooked the series isn't for you, but you probably will be.

Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko is at its base a standard harem anime, but it has the twist of a wish-granting device used in interesting ways. It also has some focus on the drama, and the drama is often kind of bizarre (partially due to the wish-granting device, but also because that's just how the series is). I personally love it, but at the same time I can imagine people absolutely hating it.

Karneval reminded me of K in various ways, though I ended up dropping it halfway through because I always end up dropping everything but one or two shows halfway through the season due to circumstances (becoming too busy/suddenly playing some game that takes too much time/etc).

I really liked the first episode of Red Data Girl, but felt the next two episodes were less interesting. Might be worth a try depending on how bored you are.

>>46048Aku no Hana's worth a watch, if the rotoscoping doesn't bother you. It's been pretty solid so far, decent characters, a sort of Lain-esque moodiness (which I think someone mentioned earlier in the thread), and a bit of drama that doesn't venture into loldrama territory.

>>46091Fuck me, that puts a different spin on things. Would also make for a pretty good story if they actually did it, which I don't see happening.Kinda reminds me of the speculation surrounding the elevator scene in Nichijou, in fact.

>>46098If I recall correctly, it was something along the lines of the girls imagining/remembering/hallucinating the events of the show as they die in the elevator.Now, I will admit the prospect of three people dying trapped in an elevator is pretty far-fetched and is likely just an oddity that was thrown in there for shits and/or giggles, but we aren't shown how they got to be there in the first place or that they actually got out, and Yukko mentions towards the end of the scene that help isn't coming. Though considering she was laughing about it and probably wouldn't know for sure anyway, I guess that doesn't mean much.Actually, it's a bit like that one episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Buffy is shown to be institutionalized in a mental hospital, and it's never revealed as to whether Vampire Slayer Buffy is a figment of Nutcase Buffy's imagination or vice versa.Fuck yeah, psychology.

So anyway, something like that. There may or may not have been more to it, I permanently vacated 4chan at about the time Nichijou was airing, so I missed most of the discussions about it.

Creating these crazy theories that completely overanalyze stuff has become something of the norm on /a/ it seems (my only exposure to it is secondhand). Most people probably don't take it seriously but I bet deep down many of them want it to be real and for something like a seemingly innocuous slice of life anime to have a huge twist and become "deep." I think that's the only thing about these theories that bothers me: they're indicative of the very real overvaluation some people have of mindfucks as some sort of pinnacle of storytelling.

>>46193So you liked it? I did not. The movie jumps all over the place with their multiple, cross time traveling, direction and stupid characters. The excessive use of the cherry blossom storm, lens flare and the laser light-hourglass-show doesn't help at all. It feels like their trying to conceal this mess. But hey, maybe I'm just a dumb hunchback and the story flies over my head. Then again, the fucking character interactions. A bunch of idiots making no sensible decisions.>So we have this weird shit going down. People acting completely out of character, cult like speeches from said shady people, a magical hourglass capable of defying physics. Yep, sounds save let's go to school.Also, pic very much related. Commence forehead slapping.

>>46199The excessive effects and ridiculousness amplify the surreal dream-like atmosphere. Kaworu and his psychics doing cult-like things are particularly bizarre as intended (see: him comparing himself to Puck).

As for the characters' decision to go to school, what's the problem? The main character doesn't get the psychic-normie conflict and is going to go anyway, the childhood friend's going to go there since the dude he loves is going there and she's over her temporary shock from the earlier attack on her, and Haruka's going to go since she wants to get to the bottom of things and see Kaworu.

>>46200>The excessive effects and ridiculousness amplify the surreal dream-like atmosphere.If you like to see it that way, do it. I'm not impressed by all the shiny lights.

>As for the characters' decision to go to school, what's the problem?The fact, that there are paranormal things happening, people being brainwashed and attacking others. The common reaction is fear and unrest. The urge to escape the situation. Not being BFF with Kyogoku and going to the beach after he told them he will battle Seki.

I also don't like the steril world this movie tried to build. There are no imperfections. Breathtaking landscape, top architectural designed school, no pollution, no grafitti, bro teachers all over the place, everyone's friends with everyone, beautiful people having deep conversations. I don't fucking buy it.

>>46238Did she ever actually do anything other than die to prove the situation was serious? Honestly, I don't remember her as anything more than a background character until her death episode, when she suddenly gets a bunch of screen time to make sure the audience at least knows who she is.

>>46256They completely ruined Zero no Tsukaima after the first season, but that didn't take away from the quality of the first season. I'd like to see a second season for this just in the off-chance it's actually good. In the best case we get a good second season, in the worst case we can just ignore it.

Warning: Spoilers ahead, I'm so irritated by this show that I can't be bothered to identify and hide spoilers.

This is easily one of the worst adaptations I have ever watched. It's a complete slap in the face if you enjoyed the game, and still a poor show on its own.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, was taking the story from Devil Survivor 2 (the game) seriously and putting it front and center. The game's story was pretty corny, and as hard as the animé tried, the animé's story still came across as a shallow clash of competing philosophies and characters spewing clichés.

What was the strength of the game? Its characters. An important aspect of the game was building up the relationships between the MC and side characters, which conferred advantages in battle. This characterization was thrown out the window in DeSu2 The Animation. The only characters with any kind of focus are Hibiki (the MC) and Yamato, and Alcor, Daichi, and Io to a lesser extent. Unfortunately, even with the screentime Yamato still ends up as a mostly 1 dimensional villain, and there's little weight behind Hibiki's words when he talks about "the power of friendship" and "the importance of choice".

Let's not mention how Makoto Sako, my second favorite heroine from the game, was completely ruined in the animé. In the game she was conflicted about blindly following JP's orders, and developed a cute friendship with the MC, but in the animé she's just Yamato's lackey. Joe was butchered worse in the animé; he was my favorite character in the game, a constant source of laughs. In the animé he inexplicably shows up for the first time in Nagoya (he's basically the third party member after Daichi and Io in the game), and is killed off very quickly without doing anything. The side-story about Airi Ban's search for her father (a pretty sad event in the game) was completely removed from the animé. Why the heck did the animé ship Jungo and Airi, Airi and MC obviously belong toget--ahem, sorry.

In the beginning of episode 10, there's a moment of levity when Alcor is hanging out in Hibiki's room and he makes breakfast for Daichi and Io. In the beginning of episode 11, the side characters gather together before the final Septentrion fight and finally introduce themselves to each other. These were easily some of the best moments in the animé, because they accomplished the goals of showing character interaction and therefore accomplished a bit of character development. This is what the show needed more of, and less bland action scenes and Yamato being antagonistic.

The point is, the characters very much carried the game, and the animé did a woeful job developing them, choosing to focus on the trite story instead. And that is DeSu2 The Animation's greatest failing. Not to mention poor writing overall.

Rating: 3/102 points for Airi Ban's bellybutton.1 point for "Hee ho!" in episode 11, a completely hilarious moment during what was supposed to be a serious scene.

>>46281They shoved up like a volume and a half in 4 minutes! I'm glad I read the manga, if not, I would be pretty confused right now. If you have the time, read the manga, how it continues is really good. The anime was pretty faithful to the original work, so if you want to skip that part, go ahead.

Finished Date A Live a little late. That was a good anime, I ended up marathoning the last 5 episodes which is something I haven't done with a show in a long time. All the girls were cute, which alone would make it one of the better harems, but it also had some legitimately hilarious parts. They did pretty decent with the battles and serious stuff toward the end too. Can't wait for the second season.

At first I was going to complain about how the director saw fit to spend an entire episode killing off a side character that had so little screen time that it would've been fine if she was just never again mentioned, and then this showed up and killed off my motivation.

Wow. This episode had it all. Characters getting mauled, Eren/Mikasa going ballistic, QUALITY and a TWEEST. Also certainly worth the wait for gg. 3 episodes in a row make a bigger impression and I understand why people wait for a series to finish and then marathon it. I will definitely pick the manga up once the anime is over.